The New, The Proud, The Confused
by All Knowing 1
Summary: The new members of the proud X-men team...kind of. They may have control of their powers, but their new lives are spinning out of control. Will likely involve organizations such as Hydra and the Hellfire Club. Possible X23 and OC paring. Lots of OC's.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hello to anyone reading this. I decided to try writing a new X-men Evolution story, since I'm having writers block on my first one. This takes place about a month or so after they defeated Apocalypse. I'll be introducing a few other OC's into the story. I know this chapter is short, but it is a prologue. I apologize for any typos, but I'm writing this after midnight. Please Review!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but Ben. Everything else belongs to the owners who really should have made another season of the show. **

Ben took his last bag out from the trunk of the taxi. Paying the driver, who was quite anxious to leave, he turned to gaze at his new home. The Xavier Institute loomed in front of him, huge, fancy, and utterly foreign. Not for the first time, he wished his parents hadn't decided 5to send him here. He knew they were just trying to protect him, having mutant abilities wasn't exactly safe right now. Even after the Apocalypse incident, mutants were hated and feared by most of the population. Deciding he was just woolgathering, he shouldered his luggage and walked up to the main door.

When he was a few feet from the door, it suddenly swung open. The figures approached him. One was an older man in a wheelchair, who Ben knew was Professor Charles Xavier. The second was a tall, mocha-skinned woman with white hair. _Storm_, he thought, remembering her name. The third was a short, scruffy man with a disapproving look on his face. _And that must be Wolverine_, Ben though with a metal sigh. _He already doesn't like me. Great_.

"Benjamin Ralech?" Professor Xavier asked. At Ben's nod he smiled. "Welcome to the Xavier Institute."

"Thanks," Ben replied, a bit warily. "It's just Ben though. Only my Mother calls me Benjamin, and she only does that when I'm in trouble."

"Very well," the Professor responded. "Ororo can show you to your room so you can get unpacked. Then please come downstairs to meet the other students."

Ben wasn't sure he wanted to meet any of the others, even if they were all mutants like him. However, he just nodded and followed Storm, or Ororo as Professor Xavier as called her. She led him up a set of stairs to a long hallway. Ben was impressed. The Mansion was huge, and seemed to scream, "Rich!" Soon enough, Storm stopped in front of a door in a hall of several just like it. "This will be your room," she said with a smile. "Do you need any help unpacking?"

"No thanks," Ben replied. With a nod at her, he opened the door to the room. He nearly gasped audibly. As it was, he was impressed. The room was at least twice as big as his room at home! Deciding to admire it later, he quickly unpacked his clothes. Remembering he was going to meet the other students soon, he took a minute to examine himself in the mirror. He wasn't vain, not by any means, but he wanted to make a good first impression. His black hair was short with a slight wave to it, but it was neat enough. He examined his clothes with his light gray eyes. He was wearing a plain short-sleeve green shirt and black jeans. They weren't expensive, but both storm and the Professor had been dressed in normal clothes. The other man, Wolverine, was in leather. Of c course, Wolverine was also short and muscular. Ben was of average height and weight for his age of 16. He had muscles, mostly from constant martial arts practice, but nothing close to Wolverine's. Realizing he was stalling, he steeled himself and headed back downstairs.

As he got to the top of the stairs, he suddenly found himself the focus of multiple eyes. There were quite a range of students, from multiple nationalities. There was even one who looked like a blue fuzzy...something. "Ah, Ben, come meet the others." As Ben walked downstairs, the Professor began the introductions. Ben tried in vain to keep up with the storm of names. He did learn that the blue mutants name was Kurt. A gothic looking girl was Rouge, and a chipper brunette's name was Kitty. There was a tall redhead named Jean, and a man with sunglasses standing next to her, named Scott. As soon as the Professor finished taking, a barrage of questions assaulted him.

"Where are you from?"

"How old are you?"

"Do you know any other mutants?"

"What are your abilities?"

The last question was asked the most, so Ben decided to start there. "I can absorb kinetic energy. This makes me hard to injure. I can then use that energy to give myself super-strength and stamina. It only lasts until the energy runs out though."

"Very cool," Kurt said, suddenly appearing behind him. It took all of Ben's will not to jump. "I can teleport," Kurt told him, a bit belatedly in Ben's opinion. "My sister Rouge, she can absorb powers and memories with a touch."

"I'm your adopted sister fuzzball," the gothic girl replied, but with a smile.

Ben nodded at her. "I was adopted too."

Rouge cocked her head at him. "Was the person who adopted you a shape-changing liar who leads a team of evil mutants?"

"Um, no?" Ben replied, wondering if she was kidding or not. Suddenly, the fatigue from the trip and all the new faces hit him. "If you don't mind, I'm going to go up to my room."

"I'll send someone up to get you for dinner," the Professor said, the left with Jean and Scott following.

"I want to see you in the Danger Room after dinner, bub," Wolverine yelled after Ben as he began to make his way up the stairs. Ben froze for a moment. _Danger Room? What have I gotten myself into?_


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Yay! I'm proud of myself for getting another chapter up. Thanks to my awesome reviewers Ember Ice and wolverine15120. Anyway, I planned on doing more in this chapter, but I figured two new OC's and the first danger room session were enough. Also, it was getting kind of long. Sorry for any spelling mistakes. Only time I can work on this is at night. Well, hope you enjoy. Please Review.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own X-men Evolution. All OC's are mine except for Ava who belongs to Ember Ice. Thanks for being the first to review! **

Ben woke up to a knocking on his door. I guess I must have fallen asleep, he though groggily while the knocking continued. "What?" he yelled.

"Professor says to tell you if you want dinner, you should come get some," someone yelled. It took Ben a minute to place the voice as one of the younger students, Amara was her name.

"Okay, you can tell him I'll be down in a minute," he replied as he sat up on his bed. Slipping on his shoes, he made his way to the kitchen. It was nearly empty when he entered, though by the number of dishes still on the table, the others had just finished. Getting a plate of what looked like pot roast (which it was, and quite good too), he noticed there were two girls still in the kitchen. He frowned, he _had_ been introduced to a lot of people today, but he didn't remember them. They were quite distinctive. One girl was a slender redhead of about average height. She also had striking blue eyes. The only other redhead he had seen at the mansion was Jean, who was both taller and older than this girl. The other girl was slim and looked like she had some European nationality in her. She had long, mocha colored hair that fell straight to the middle of her back. Her hair was also layered, with sweeping side bangs falling to the left. It seemed to be streaked with pink, though the streaks blended in a bit too well. Her gray eyes were as dark as his were light, that is to say very dark. No, Ben was sure he would have remembered them.

Finishing his roast, he went up to where the girls were talking (or maybe arguing, since they were speaking quite loud and animatedly). "Um hi," he said awkwardly as both girls turned to him. "I'm new here, I was introduced to everyone earlier, but I don't think you were there."

The girl with pink hair smiled at him. She had a very pretty smile. "Of course not, I certainly would remember someone as _interesting_ as you." She slide a bit closer to him. "We were at the pool. Someone," she gestured to the redhead," refused to get out until it was almost night. I'm Ava by the way. Actually, my name is Avalon, but I don't like being called that. She is Lea and…"

"_She_ can introduce herself, thank you very much," Lea interrupted. "High, I'm Lea. I'm hydrokinetic; I can control and, to some extent, manipulate water."

"And I control storms," Ava inserted, glaring at Lea. "Lightning mostly, but amaranth colored. Like these," she gestured to the streaks in her hair. "They're natural by the way. So, what can you do handsome?"

"Well, I can absorb kinetic energy," Ben replied, a bit uneasy at Ava's blatant attempts to flirt with him."I then use it to increase my strength and stamina."

"Wow, that's…" Ava began before Wolverine entered.

"There you are, and looks like you met the other newbies. Well, all of you need get in uniform and come with me to the Danger Room. _Now_." Ava opened her mouth to protest, though whether about the danger room or being called a newbie Ben didn't know. "No complaints Thundercat." Turning to Ben he pointed upstairs, "There should be a standard uniform in your closet. Go all of you." Ava shot him a poisonous glance, but went upstairs with Ben and Lisa.

Ben easily found the uniform. It was a plain black, with shoulder pads and an "X" belt bucket. Ben changed into it, and then looked at himself in the mirror. "Forget these," he muttered, tearing the shoulder pads off. "Better." He walked into the hall to see Lea and Ava coming out of their own rooms. Lea's uniform looked similar to his, no shoulder pads, but had a blue streak down the center. Ava's was another thing entirely. It was storm-grey bandeau top, with a 2" cuff that wrapped from the center of the top horizontally around her arms and back. She also had a pair of short-shorts and knee-high heeled boots. She topped this all off with angled cuffs on her forearms which loop around her middle finger. _She looks good_, Ben thought to himself. _I wonder how she got away with it._ They walked down the stairs, and Wolverine gestured them into an elevator.

As they got into an elevator, Ben heard Lea whisper with a hint of amusement, "Thundercat."

Evidently Ava heard her too. "Don't _ever_ call me that me that," she snarled, amaranth sparks starting to appear in the air above her. Luckily, at that moment the elevator stopped and Wolverine lead them into a big, seemingly featureless white room.

"This is the Danger Room?" Ben asked confused, and a bit angry. He had been worried, and it was just this. "What's the danger, boredom?"

Wolverine gave what could only be described as a feral smile. "You'll see. Now, I want you all to try this simulation. _As a team_. That means no arguing," he gave Lea and Ava a "look." He left the room, appearing a minute later in what looked to be the control booth. "Begin simulation."

Suddenly, the room changed. Panels opened to reveal what looked to be guns. A few began to spray lasers while a couple shot out spiked discs. At the same time, metal tentacles sprouted from the walls. "Is he trying to kill us?" Ben all but screamed. Ava shrugged, "Sometimes I wonder."

Lea turned to face them, her expression serious. "This is no time to be joking. Ava, you try and handle the lasers. I'll get the disk shooters. Ben, you said you absorb kinetic energy right?" Ben nodded, wondering what she was getting at. "Try stopping the tentacles then."

"Who put you in charge?" Ava muttered, but moved to intercept the lasers. Forming her hands into a gun shape, she shot a bolt of lightning at the nearest laser. Lea closed her eyes, her hands pressed together in a prayer-like position. Separating them slowly, Ben was amazed to see a ball of water, about the size of her fist, appearing. Lea lobbed the ball at the closest disk, shattering it.

Ben wondered if he should try to approach one of the tentacles, when his decision got made for him. Without warning he found himself entangled, it the coil beginning to squeeze him. A sensation of a slight chill ran thorough him, telling him he was absorbing the kinetic energy. Automatically, he took hold of the energy, willing it into his muscles. Though he had not had official training with his powers, this much was reflex by know. Freeing on hand, he karate chopped the tentacle. The force of the blow cut the coil neatly in half, severing it completely. The sparking remained withdrew back into the wall. As two more tentacles neared him, he kicked the closest, while simultaneously punching the second. Though not as strong as his blow to the first one, both blows he dealt produced the sound of machinery being crushed. The actions were also adding to his store of kinetic energy.

"Duck!" a voice yelled. He immediately crouched down, barely avoiding a bolt of amaranth lightning. "Sorry," Ava yelled as she turned to face another laser. Looking around, Ben noticed the disks were getting to be too much for Lea. Her water balls were also getting smaller. _She must be using the moisture in the air_, Ben suddenly realized. _And there is only a limited amount of that in the room._ Heading toward Lea, he didn't notice the pair of disks heading toward him until they impacted.

"Ahh!" he yelled in surprise.

"Are you okay?" Lea yelled out, running up to him.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I was just surprised." Ben showed her the area the disks had impacted. There were only a few, very shallow cuts. "I absorbed their kinetic energy. Without the force of momentum behind them, they can't hurt be much."

Ben smiled as he got an idea. "I can, however, do this with them." Picking up the disk carefully, he threw it like a Frisbee, straight into one of the lasers, demolishing it. He did the dame with the second disk, destroying a disk firing machine.

"End simulation," Wolverines voice came through the speakers. The (few) remaining guns folded back into the wall. "Not bad. Meet me up here." Shrugging, Ben followed the girls up to the control room. Wolverine gave them a small nod of approval. "Not bad at all. Even you, newbie." Ben flinched a bit at being called at newbie, but he guessed it was true. He hadn't even been here a day. Wolverine's voice brought him back to what was being said.

"Now, you all will be having an hour of Danger Room time around noon every day." Ben wanted to protest, but one look at Wolverine's expression told him that wouldn't be a good idea.

"Can we at least choose codenames?" Lea asked. "If we're going to training like X-men, we should be able to…"

"One," Wolverine interrupted, "you aren't training like X-men. You're training like recruits. Two, fine. You can chose names. Just tell them to the Professor when you're done." Nodding to them, Wolverine left them alone.

"Well, I've already decided," Ava stated. "I'm Tempest. The more violent side of weather. Not like Sunshine."

"Sunshine?" Ben asked, confused.

"That's one of the things she calls Storm," Lea supplied.

Ava rolled her eyes. "Storms are weak. It suits her."

"I don't know what I should choose," Les put into, changing the topic.

"Well, you control water, have red hair, blue eyes," Ben's face broke out in a smile. "The Little Mermaid!"

Ava immediately broke into laughter. Lea stared at him angrily. Ben just smiled.

"Seriously."

"Please, the name is perfect," Ava managed to get out before collapsing into laughter again.

"No," Lea stated firmly. "I'll call myself…Cascade."

"Boooring," Ava replied. Ben just shrugged.

"I'm not sure," he admitted, "maybe…Impact?"

"I like it," Ava said. "You've certainly made an impact on me," she whispered into his ear. Ben wondered if she was doing this just to unnerve him.

"I'll tell the Professor," he said, eager to do something. As he got into the elevator, he thought he heard the tow girls started another argument. _Are they friends or enemies?_ he thought as the elevator ascended. _Will anything in this place ever make sense?_


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** **Sorry this took a bit longer to finish that I had hoped. However, here I introduce my last OC and another surprise member. I won't have another chapter up for at least a week and a half, due to exams. On another note, I'll be starting my main plot next chapter. I'm considering excepting OC Hellions for when I get to the Hellfire Club, so tell me if you think that's a good idea. Also, I know people are reading this, yet I only have two (amazing) reviewers. If you take the time to read the story, please leave a review, even it is short. Any spelling or grammar mistakes are a result of me being tired. Anyway, please enjoy! (Wow this was my longest Authors note ever)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own X-men Evolution or any of their characters. I own all OC's, except for Ava who belongs to Ember Ice.**

Over the next weeks, Ben's day begin to develop a pattern. He would sleep as let as he felt like (normally to about 11 or so) then get up and dressed for the day. Around 12, who would go have lunch with whichever residents of the mansion were eating at the time. After, at 1:00 _exactly_ he would meet with Lea and Ava for their Danger Room session. This session was monitored by either a member of the staff or one of the members of the "official" X-men team. They would then be given a review of their performance, told they were doing well, and then Ben and Lea would cover Ava's mouth as she attempted to once again ask why their session were not increasing in difficulty. The initial answers to this question had been (in the case of most of their supervisors) an explanation of how, since they did not have a full team, they could not due harder session. In the case of Rouge or Logan, the question was either completely ignored, or answered with a "don't complain Thundercat." After a week, Ben and Lea decides stopping the question from being asked was a better strategy. Not that Ava approved, but they outnumbered her and she couldn't attack them, at least not when others were present.

After the Danger Room was when they got free time. Ben usually spent this hanging with Ava and Lea. Sure, they were girls, but they were the people he knew best at the Institute. Other times he wandered the Institute's grounds, spent time on his laptop or listening to music. One day, he even served as Kitty's taste tester. It was an interesting experience. He hadn't had a chance before that to see the infirmary. Ben had finally to get comfortable with the way his days would run. Sure, in a few weeks he would have to start attending Bayville High, but for the moment he was content. He should have known it wouldn't last.

It had started as a regular morning. Ben was sleeping peacefully. That was, until, a heavy knocking came at his door. Hoping it would go away if he ignored it, he did just that. Sadly for him, said knocker was Kitty, also known as Shadowcat. Next thing he knew, he was being shook hard. "What?" he managed to groggily mutter.

"Important announcement by the Professor. And Logan. Get up, get dressed, and come downstairs." With that she left the way she had obviously entered, phasing through the door.

Ben would have been tempted to ignore this in favor of more sleep, but the addition of Logan (as Wolverine had told him to call him after he got tired of remembering to answer to Wolverine when not in battle) made him decide to do what she said. A few minutes later, he yawned as he descended the stairs. As the students and staff gathered in the main room, Ben noticed he wasn't the only one who looked like they had just been woken up. However, he only spared a few moments to look at the others. His eyes, like the rest in the room, were drawn to the girl standing in front of them, between Logan and the Professor.

"Everyone," the Professor began," I would like to introduce you to our newest student, Laura Kinney. She is also Logan's adopted daughter. I hope you will all make her feel welcome."

Everyone, Ben included, gaped in shock. _Logan_ had an adopted daughter? The girl didn't look like much. She was green-eyed with long brown hair. She didn't seem shy at all. In fact, she was almost staring then down, a small smirk on her face. _Like father like daughter_, Ben thought ironically. _Honestly, you would think they were actually blood related._

Deciding since he was already up and unlikely to go back to sleep, Ben figured he may as well eat breakfast. He wondered what was actually served for breakfast, since he had always preferred getting extra sleep over eating a meal early in the day. Apparently, most of the others had similar sentiments and headed, as a whole, to the kitchen. Ben noted, however, that neither, the professor, Logan, nor Laura followed. Probably going to help get her settled in, Ben rationalized. However, since they were not present, the kitchen soon erupted in speculation about Logan and his "daughter." Ben ignored it, mainly because too many people were talking at once, and he couldn't make out where one person's ideas began and another's opinion ended.

When the facts, realizations, and bits of info were put together, a conclusion was finally reached. This whole process, of course, was helped by Kitty's ability to speak louder than everyone else, and thus get them to listen to her. Apparently, Laura was Logan's clone, created by some organization called Hydra. She had attacked the mansion at once time, since she blamed Logan for what had happened to her. No one was exactly sure how that had ended, but since no one had been harmed in the end, it was forgotten. With Logan now her father (which made much more sense now) no one wanted to accuse her. After all, the professor would not have let her in if she had intended any harm. That being decided, everyone devoted themselves to their food.

After breakfast was concluded, Ben ended up watching T.V. in the wreck room with Ava and some of the New Mutants team. He then went and surfed online for a while, until it was time for lunch. As he entered the kitchen, he noticed that, while most of the students and staff were there, the Professor and storm were conspicuously absent. This was stranger for Storm than the Professor, since he was often attending to the work that came along with running the Institute. Strom, however, was almost always there; often it was she who cooked the meal. Others seemed to have come to a similar solution, as the refrigerator was being raided for leftovers.

Grabbing a bowl of leftover stew, Ben sat down beside Lea and Ava, both of whom were eating pasta. Surprisingly, whether due to lack of sleep or pure luck, all three finished eating without the girls getting into a single argument. As the three of them got up and were about to get changed into their uniforms for a danger room session, the Professor's voice broke into Ben's thoughts_. Everyone, a new student has arrived, earlier than planned, and I would like you all to come meet him. _Judging by the looks on the other's faces, they had received the same message. Ben internally grimaced as the entire student body, once again, headed to the main room. _Nothing for weeks and then two new people in one day_, he thought with a sigh. _Great job on easing me in gradually._

When Ben entered the room, he saw Storm helping bring it what was likely the last piece of the boy's luggage. The new student looked to be about Ben's age, a year older at the most. He was tall and reasonably muscular. What was most surprising about him was that his hair was completely green. His eyes were a lighter shade of light green, and he was wearing a green shirt with his blue jeans. "Hi," he said, smiling at the assembled crowd. I'm Merric, but you can call me Rick. Before you ask, no, I didn't dye my hair. The coloring is a side effect of my mutation."

"Welcome," the Professor said to him, than scanned the crowd of students. "Ah... Ava, could you please show Rick to his room."

"No problem Professor," Ava smiled. "Follow me hot stuff."

Ben rolled his eyes at Ava's flirting, but to his surprise Rick didn't seem to be embarrassed. He smiled back at Ava, and grabbed one of his bags. "I'd follow you to the end of the world beautiful."

Ben smirked at the surprised look on Ava's face. Obviously, she hadn't met anyone who had flirted back at her. Ben turned to see if Lea had noticed this development, but found himself facing Logan.

"Kid, tell your friends that your session will be an hour later," he said, leaving before Ben could ask for an explanation. Shrugging, Ben went to tell the others.

As Ben, Lea and Ava got out of the elevator, an hour later to the dot, they were surprised to see both Rick and Laura talking with Logan. Facing them Logan stated bluntly," Rick and Laura will be joining your team." He then ushered them into the Danger Room.

"So... "Ben began, recovering from Logan's announcement, "what_ are_ your powers?" Laura didn't answer, but popped out a pair of claws that looked almost identical to Logan's, except there were only two. Ben decided not to press her farther.

"I can manipulate plants," Rick replied, and gestured to his hair. "However, a side effect is that I have some chlorophyll in my body. I can gain energy from the sun, like plants, but my hair is green as a result."

"Oh," was Ben's only response.

"Now that you have a full team," Logan's voice boomed over the loudspeaker, "We'll be making it a bit more challenging. As the room began to shirt again, in addition to the lasers, disk throwers, and tentacles Ben was used to, some floor panels flipped over to reveal small robot looking things that began to shot lasers,. A few wall panels opened to expose more of the same.

_Well,_ Ben thought sarcastically, _this should be fun._


	4. Chapter 4

**I'm sorry that this update took longer than I planned. But like I said, the plot begins. This doesn't mean I'm done with OC's, nor by any means. We still have all the Hellions to be introduced. If you have an OC you wanted to be in the story, feel free to PM it to me. If it fits my story, I'll include it. Just include basic info (appearance, Name, age, power, etc).All mistakes are due to me writing this late at night. I'm also using a different document type to see if it works better than my old one, so I apologize for any formatting problems this may cause. Please enjoy and review!**

**I do not own X-men Evolution. I own all my OC's. Ava is owned by Ember Ice.**

At first look, Ben could say with certainty he was unimpressed. He could hardly believe how fast the last few week of the summer had gone. Sure, things had picked up a bit after Rick and Laura had come to the Institute, but how could it be time for school to start already? Not only that but, while he never was a fan of school, the other X-men had been sure to warn them of the treatment, or rather mistreatment, of mutant here.

"Here we are," Lea announced unnecessarily, getting out of the back of Ava's car. They had all ridden with her, she being the only one of them with a car. It was better than the other options, being driven by Jean, with complementary lecture, or risking their lives by riding with the recently licensed Kitty. Ben was still unsure how the heck she had been able to pull that off. The New Recruits had no choice three, and so had to suffer. Laura was the only one who had not yet arrived; Logan said he was taking her by motorcycle. He claimed it was due to, "a father wanting to insure his daughter getting there safely," but Ben had known Logan long enough to know that for a lie. _Rick_ had even known Logan enough to realize that. More likely, Logan was giving Laura some ground rules, such as, "no maiming teachers or other students." She was certainly able to; she'd proven that in the first danger room session.

As a matter of fact, their "teams" first session together had been more successful that he had anticipated. Laura had been everywhere, slashing and tearing apart any and all obstacles. No one was surprised, she _was _Logan's clone. Rick had been able to do more than Ben had thought at first. While his powers were useful, there were no plants in the Danger Room. What Ben hadn't known, was how fast he could accelerate the grown of plants. He had brought in a bag of various seeds, and within a few seconds, had a variety of vines, thorny plants, and others surrounding him. "They won't remain unless they had a constant supply of sun, soil, and water," he explained after. "But I can use my powers as a substitute for those." The only other complication they had had were codenames for the two new members. Rick had decided to be Briar. They had to give a long, complicated definition of what a codename was to Laura, and even then she concluded it was "a symbolic designation." They decided that was close enough. Laura had then informed them her former designation was X-23, and she saw no reason to change it. She did agree to let them call her "X" in the field, since it was faster.

Ben was brought out of his musings by Ava's response to Lea's comment. "Yep, welcome one and all to our torture chamber for the next 10 months. Joy."

"Now Ava," Rick responding in a fake admonishing voice, "We must at least _try_ to behave. If we make trouble, Mother will be quite upset with us."

They all broke into laughter. "Mother", was, in reality, Scott. After one particular lecture, something about how it wasn't proper to use one's powers to play pranks, Rick had responded, "We're sorry, Mother. We'll be good." Despite Scott's anger, the rest have had continued to use the name. Logan seemed to find it as funny as they did.

The bell reminded them it was time to face the music. "Look on the bright side," Ben called to the others as they headed for the doors, "It can't be _that_ bad."

Ben ended up being right, it wasn't that bad. It was worse. He had homeroom with both Laura and Rick. In the past few weeks, Ben had become fairly good friends with Rick. He had a good sense of humor, though his constant flirting (that was by no means one sided) with Ava was beginning to grate on half the Institute's nerves. Ben had also tried to get to know Laura, but that had been less successful. While she was intelligent and a fury in battle situations, she had few social skills. It wasn't that she was rude; it was more that she didn't understand some common conventions. This resulted in her being, not really shy, but awkward in many situations.

No sooner had they taken their seats then they were approached by a broad shouldered boy with a Letterman jacket whose appearance screamed jock. He stood above them, and sneered. "You're those new freaks from the Institute?" Without waiting for a response, two of what looked like his friends came up behind him. "Maybe we should show you how we feel about freaks." Ben suddenly found a fist heading straight at him. Before it sound hit him, a hand reached out and caught the jock by the wrist. Ben turned to see Laura glaring at him. Despite her being at least two heads shorter than him, Ben was glad her look wasn't directed at him. The fact that she was dressed in nothing but black, shirt and jeans both slightly worn, and her combat boots didn't help.

Her voice was cold when she spoke. "Class is soon beginning. I would suggest you take your seats. Also," she released his hand negligently, "you should be glad my father thought to talk to me this morning. If not, I would be unaware maiming is poor manners." The three gulped and quickly departed.

"Nice Laura," Rick remarked. "I think they believed your bluff."

Laura gave him a confused look. "What is a bluff?"

Ben felt a shiver go down his spine. It didn't look like the day was off to a good start. He hoped the rest would be better. Of course, he didn't think it would be.

"Get a load of that" Rick whispered to Ben as they walked to their next, and thankfully last, class of the day. The day hadn't been as bad as he had thought. Sure, no one talked to them, but no one tried to assault them either. Ben was sure Laura's demonstration earlier played no small part in that. However, the "that" Rick was referring to was of a completely different, and much more mundane, nature.

Walking down the hallway was Bobby Drake, the youngest member of the official X-men team. What was interesting was he was walking hand-in-hand with a girl that Ben knew did not live in the mansion. The girl was quite pretty, with long white blond hair, dancing green eyes that shone with something a bit different than laughter, and tan skin. She wore a white short sleeve shirt with swirls of green along with skinny blue jeans. The two were laughing a something one of them, likely Bobby, had said.

Ben snorted when he saw the gleam in Ricks eyes. "Oh, like you can say anything with the way you and Ava are carrying on. I'm getting tempted to ask Rogue to put one, or better both, of you out just to get some peace. Frankly, I'm not sure Lea hasn't already made that request."

Rick just grinned at him, undeterred." Oh, so Lea and you..."

"Are just friends," Ben interrupted him. "Just like I told you the other fifteen times you insinuated that we were anything else."

"Fine," Rick allowed. "But what about Laura? She protected you this morning, didn't she? And she is quite attractive."

Ben suddenly felt his face getting hot. Truthfully, he agreed with Rick about Laura. Not only was she pretty..okay, hot, at least in his opinion, but she wasn't a girl who wanted a man to take care of her. She didn't take nonsense from anyone, and could protect herself, thank you very much. _Oh. God._ Ben though in sudden fright, _I _do_ like Laura. I _really_ like her. And she is not only Logan's clone, but his _daughter_. I he finds out, he'll kill me. And then bring me pack to life so he can kill me _again_._

As this was running through his head, Rick's smile had been growing bigger and bigger. By the time Ben had managed to conceal his blush, Rick's smile was so big, it was a wonder his face didn't split in two. "Oh, you do!" he exclaimed. "Ava is going to _love_ this!"

"Don't you dare..." Ben began when the bell rang. "Damn, if we don't get to class now, were dead."

As the two bolted for class, Rick whispered, still grinning, to Ben, " My girlfriend finds out everything, so don't bother with the threats. And if I were you, I'd worry more about Logan than my gossip."

_Don't I know it_, Ben though grimly.

Looking around to be sure everyone else had left, the white- blond haired girl, walked out to the curb. A moment later, w long white limousine pulled up, the back door opening from the inside. The girl slipped in, closing the door behind her.

Placing herself on the leather seats, she turned to meat the eyes of the limo's other passenger. The other was a girl with short black hair who was, at most, two years her junior. "Did you get everything we needed?" The black haired girl questioned the other. The blond nodded. "Good. I knew he was the one to go for. As cor holding your hand, well, no guy can refuse skin contact if he can get it. The fact you were able to maintain it for the time required must have taken skill"

The blond laughed, her green eyes glistening. "You would not believe how many lame jokes I had to endure. And I had to pretend they were funny. But it was worth it. Are the rest of the areas going equally well?"

The black haired girl nodded, "Everything is in place. The first stage will start soon. "

The blond smiled. " Bless Her Majesty."

"Bless Her," the other replied as the limo speed into the distance.


End file.
